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June 13, 2011

In a document entitled B"lackwater Press Release," it has been revealed that Erik Prince is working with 505 Games to help create a video game based on battles fought by mercenaries against soldiers in fictional lands. The mercenaries are modeled on the former Blackwater Company that Erik Prince founded several years ago. The game will be called "Blackwater," and will use Xbox 360 Kinect technology. According to the press release:

Blackwater is an intense, cinematic shooter experience unlike anything you’ve ever played before. Lead a team of Blackwater Operators protecting a fictional North African town, battling dangerous warlords and fighting back two opposing militia forces. Using the motion-sensing Kinect controller players can do everything from moving their character to aiming and firing a weapon as you work your way through pressure-filled missions. The game is also playable with a standard controller.

While Prince busies himself with this war game, the New York Times has reported that, although Reflex Resources has denied any involvement by Erik Prince in the Abu Dhabi company, a Congressional investigation is continuing about whether Prince may have participated in recruitment of employees or their training for the company, known as R2.
The game should go on sale by the fall of 2011.

Published: June 6, 2011

WASHINGTON — The president of a company training foreign mercenary troops for the United Arab Emirates has told the State Department and members of Congress that Erik Prince, the former head of the security firm Blackwater Worldwide, plays no role in operating the business.

In letters sent to lawmakers and Obama administration officials, the head of Reflex Responses, a company based in Abu Dhabi, said that Mr. Prince “has no ownership stake whatsoever” in the business.
“He is not an officer, director, shareholder, or even an employee of R2,” wrote the company’s president, Michael Roumi, referring to the company by its common name.

Mr. Roumi’s letters, dated May 18, were sent in response to inquiries by members of the House of Representatives after The New York Times reported last month that the United Arab Emirates had signed a $529 million contract with R2 to build the foreign battalion. According to American officials and former company employees, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi hopes to use the foreign troops to put down labor unrest in the country and defend the U.A.E. from terrorist attacks. One of Mr. Roumi’s letters was passed to a group of congressmen by Victoria Toensing, Mr. Prince’s lawyer.

The Justice Department has opened an inquiry into whether the company may have violated United States laws prohibiting Americans from transferring military technology or expertise overseas. Investigators have interviewed at least one former R2 employee, according to two people familiar with the inquiry.

American officials and several former company employees said Mr. Prince was deeply involved last year with R2 and in recruiting contractors to train the foreign troops, The Times reported. Mr. Prince’s current relationship with the company remains unclear.

Five former employees, speaking on condition of anonymity because they had signed confidentiality agreements, said Mr. Prince had overseen the hiring of American military and law enforcement veterans for the project, as well as European and South African contractors. They said he made occasional trips to the desert camp where the foreign troops, many of them Colombians, were being trained. And some of R2’s top managers had worked with Mr. Prince at Blackwater.

The former employees said that Mr. Prince took pains to mask his role in the operation, and that his name did not appear on contract documents between R2 and the U.A.E. that were provided to The Times. R2’s origins and affiliations are unclear; most corporate records are not public in Abu Dhabi. R2’s commercial license lists two other companies as partners, and the name of a third business was posted outside the office suite R2 had been using in the last year.

American laws governing the export of defense technology are murky, but American citizens involved in training foreign troops run legal risks if the State Department does not grant permits for the training. A State Department spokesman said the Obama administration was aware of R2’s operations, but would not say whether the company was operating with licenses from the department.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 7, 2011, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Head of Private Military Firm Denies Affiliation With Ex-Blackwater Chief.